Love Letters and Mate Gifts

Spring is in the air. At Fallbrook Square in the San Fernando Valley, the male raven is offering sticks for the remodeling of the pair’s nest on the “L” of the Kohl’s sign. The titmice and the Bewick’s wrens are checking out the bird house. While overhead the red-tailed hawks are soaring with their feet extended ready to clasp talons mid-flight to reinforce their mate bond.

Is it love? Hard to say. The raven offers a stick, the red-tailed hawk offers a freshly caught gopher, while for St. Valentine’s Day chocolate and flowers are the primary human offerings. Humans claim to express romantic “love,” but many birds mate for life and work together as a pair raising multiple families of offspring. Hmmm, what’s more romantic than a delicately offered mouse you caught yourself?

Expressing ardor with voice is a typical bird action. Song birds like white-crowned sparrows and the Bewick’s wren sing to their mate and to delineate territory. While some humans sing, we are more likely to express romance through the written word. Up until the advent of e-mail, humans frequently wrote love letters.

For Valentine’s Day a group of us humans did a live reading of famous love letters.

You can download the readings at
Love Letters
http://recordings.talkshoe.com/TS-6184.mp3

Listen on your computer or download to an iPod or other mp3 player. You might be surprised at the romantic writings of Napoleon and the devotion of John and Abigail Adams. Next year maybe we’ll have to include some bird song.


Did we count birds for the Great Backyard Bird Count?

You bet 320 individual birds. Stay tuned for our Birding From Sepulveda Basin Podcast.

AnimalBytes at Sepulveda Wildlife Refuge

Sunday, February 18, 2007 at 8:00 AM

This weekend is the Great Backyard Bird Count.
AnimalBytes will be at the Sepulveda Wildlife Refuge.

Bring your binoculars and Come Join Us.

We will be counting birds for Cornell University Lab of Ornithology. Last year we documented over 100 double-crested cormorants, flocks of red-winged blackbirds and a kettle of turkey vultures. The Sepulveda Dam area brings together water fowl and song birds. This year we hope to tally even more individual birds and species.

We will meet at the cement sign at the north entrance to the wildlife area between 7:45 AM and 8:00 AM.

The Sepulveda Wildlife Refuge is accessible from the 405 FWY, the 101 FWY and the Metro Orange Line (Woodley Station).

To access the parking area, enter the park from Woodley at the same driveway as the Japanese Gardens. Stay to the right and follow the road east along the wall. The road ends at a parking area with a public restroom. The cement sign and the entrance path are just before you come to the public restroom. Well-behaved children are always welcome, they have the best eyes and are our next generation of conservationists.

You can count at home in you backyard too.

Remember Every Bird Counts.

For more information about GBBC and to enter your own bird counts go to the GBBC Website

Great Backyard Bird Count 2007

The 10th Annual Great Backyard Bird Count is just around the corner.

Over four days, February 16-19 2007, people across North America will count birds in parks, refuges, city streets and backyards to create a snapshot of avian populations and biodiversity.

Typically, 75 % of all North American bird species migrate. But last year, warm weather caused some birds to skip their normal winter travel. Still other species were recorded further north than usual. Species like the California towhee, pictured, are found only in regional locations. If volunteers don't count in southern California, there is no record of these birds. While some birds like the American goldfinch showed increases across the country, others like the American crow recorded another year of decline. All of this information was captured by Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) observers.

The Cornell University Lab of Ornithology and Audubon host this annual event to collect important scientific data. Birds are travelers and their movement can tell us a great deal about the effects of climate change, urbanization and conservation efforts. GBBC is the perfect family outing, scout or youth project or a way to enjoy your backyard and contribute to important biological science.

Counting birds for GBBC is fun and easy.

To Count on Your Own:
Visit the Great Backyard Bird Count website for simple instructions and information. (www.birdsource.org/gbbc)

To Count with a Group:

• The Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens will be hosting two Bird Walks in conjunction with GBBC. Wed. Feb. 14 and Sat. Feb. 17, 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM Both Bird Walks are open to Zoo members free of charge. The Wed. Bird Walk will teach you how to count so you can count on your own over the weekend. While on the Saturday Bird Walk you will be helping Zoo Docents complete a count of wild birds on Zoo grounds. Reservations are required for both walks. To make reservations send an e-mail to sanderson@lazoo.org; put “Bird Walk” in the subject line and include in your e-mail: the number of people in your party, your phone number and your Zoo membership number.
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• AnimalBytes also invites you to come out and count with us at the Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Refuge. Sunday, Feb. 18 at 8:00 AM. Last year we counted 29 species, including 122 double-crested cormorants, 47 red-winged blackbirds and a merlin. We will meet at the cement sign at the north entrance to the wildlife area. To access the parking area, enter the park from Woodley at the same driveway as the Japanese Gardens. Stay to the right and follow the road east along the wall. The road ends at a parking area with a public restroom. The cement sign and the entrance path are just before you come to the public restroom. Well-behaved children are always welcome, they have the best eyes and are our next generation of conservationists.

Whether you are an experienced birder or casual observer, science needs your help. Even if you only count the five mourning doves on your lawn, EVERY BIRD COUNTS.

Every bird is important.
You can make a difference.
Participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count.